Ari Meisel

How I Process A Massive Amount of Content

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I’ve worn many different hats as an entrepreneur. But the one thing that has remained is my unique ability to distill enormous amounts of content into workable solutions for my clients.

I’m able to “connect the dots” really well. I like solving problems. Whether that’s the best way to get an idea out of your head, or automating your hiring process.

Here’s how I process a massive amount of content on a weekly basis.

I follow about 200 different blogs that put out over 1000 posts per day. I follow and actually read about 30 email newsletters each week. I’m currently subscribed to 22 podcasts, not including my own. And now that I’ve been doing this for a while, people send my things by Twitter, Slack, Email, and even SMS on a near hourly basis.

So, needless to say, it’s a lot.

There are two sides to what I consider “processing” content.

First you have to take it all in.

Second, you have to be able to disseminate it properly; which includes internalizing it so you can recall it at some later date if needed.

The first thing I do is get everything I find from all these different sources into one consolidated place. That place, is a Trello list.

My Content List on Trello

Now the cool thing is the way that things get onto this list, a lot of it is powered by automations setup with IFTTT.

  • I use Feedly to follow all of the different blogs and when I “save” something on Feedly, IFTTT creates a card for it in Trello
  • If I get an interesting email and I forward it to a special email address for my Trello board, it creates a new card in the list
  • If I visit a cool website on my desktop I click the Trello extension and it creates a card in my list.
  • The coolest one is if I take a screenshot on my iPhone of a text message or a website or even a screen on a particular app, IFTTT will turn that into a card.

So that’s how everything gets into one organized place. It means I can grab things on the fly that I want to look at later, and then when I’m in a focused place, I can batch process those new items.

It also helps me commit many of these items to memory through the use of spaced repetition which means I’m exposing myself to the same piece of information more than once at different intervals. Basically, if in three years somebody says, “Is there an app that does X” most likely I’ll be able to recall the answer easily because of this method.

This is the fun part. I produce content for nearly a dozen different outlets on a weekly basis. There’s our client emails, general newsletter, Less Doing Podcasts, our FB group, our Mastermind, etc.

I approach my main list in Trello as a sorting list. I look at it and decide if it’s something I want to try out or work on myself, if it needs to go to someone on my team or if it’s going to go to my content board.

My Content Board and Calendar

Once it’s on the content board I know what channel it has to go to and I can put due dates on items, which organizes my content calendar so I can consistently produce items, 7 days per week, and be cognizant of upcoming holidays or other events that might effect content.

Backup

I have a redundancy in place.

No matter what gets saved to my list, IFTTT also creates a note in Evernote. I use it as my ultimate brain dump because Evernote is good at bringing back content that’s relevant in the moment. It does that through the things you add to it in the moment as well as whatever you search for on Google. It will pop up with any related notes from your “external brain.” This ensures that nothing ever falls through the cracks and there’s always a place for things to go in order to be useful.

Whenever you are ready…here are 4 ways I can help you become more replaceable and grow your business:

1) Join our FREE Facebook Group – The Replaceable Founder

2) Get our FREE Replaceable Founder Mini-Course

3) Come to our next One-Day Intensive “Becoming Replaceable Workshop” in NYC

4) Want to work with us privately? Just answer a few questions and find out if you’re a good fit. Apply Now

How To Cultivate a Culture of Mutual Respect

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I’ve talked a lot about team building and delegation and now that you’ve probably got a handle on it, I’d like to include the essential missing pieces.

Trust and Mutual Respect.

I’ve waited until now to talk about these intangibles because I like to be the guy who puts in the last puzzle pieces. I know, it’s a jerk move. I’m still a work in progress.

So, trust and mutual respect.

You can outfit yourself with all the very best processes to become more productive, to scale up or down, whatever your model. But you can’t buy trust and mutual respect. You have to cultivate those qualities, and it must start with you.

In other words, if you want self-esteem, you have to do esteemable things.

The more esteemable acts I perform, the stronger I feel and the more attracted I become to others who are on the same path. It’s taken a long time to become a good judge of character and it has been directly proportional to the kind of character I continue to develop inside.

We must, as founders, respect the individual gifts each member of the team brings to the mix. Instead of being suspicious or envious or befuddled by them, we need to embrace and learn from each person’s unique qualities.

Relinquish your ego’s desire to take credit for others. Give credit where it is due and never, ever imagine that you are the smartest person in the room.

The paradox here is that once you have established this level of detachment, you can begin to trust and once you begin to trust, you can do anything, absolutely anything. Sometimes, this process takes years, and sometimes you just know.

Still, I marvel at what technology can do for us. I’m always curious about advancement and how being replaced by technology is not the end of human life, it is the beginning. It frees us to explore the endless possibilities of the human spirit.

So my team is small, wildly eccentric, and completely isolated from one another. But we are connected by a trust born out of mutual respect for one another’s badass talents.

My relationship with them and the bond they have formed with each other can’t be memorialized in a 400-page contract. There’s no algorithm for it. It is the product of authenticity and transparency.

There’s no computer in the world that can get excited about the possibility of something new, only humans can do that, and that’s amazing.

I Am A Poka-Yoke.

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The internet is littered with inspirational words about mistakes. I mean can you believe what this Google image search found? And that’s just page one of 300!

Crazy right?

It got me thinking about poka-yoke.

You’ve probably heard about the Japanese term translated as “mistake proofing” or the more business school-y, “inadvertent error prevention.” The concept was formalized, and the word adopted, by Shigeo Shingo as part of the Toyota Production System.

It’s any mechanism in a process that helps a person avoid mistakes. It serves to eliminate defects by preventing or correcting human error. For example, if a part requires three screws, package those screws in sets of three.

Here is where I come in.

Less Doing, the company I founded, is a Poka-yoke.

And not because I never make mistakes, because that would make me a robot, and I’m a long way from robotic. But because I mess up all the time.

Sometimes, I pivot like a maniac to find solutions to our big ideas at a pace that leaves some of our older team members, stunned and crabby. But that’s what makes us work.

We can identify not only where things ARE going awry, but where operations could go, for lack of a better phrase, “pear-shaped.” If you live, as we do, in the world of trial and error, you develop a pretty good arsenal of solutions.

My passion has become investigating the surest way to eliminate foreseeable errors, thereby redirecting my headspace toward forward motion. In other words, all I do is isolate areas where a solid dose of poka-yoke is required.

Sometimes my clients don’t know where those bottlenecks are, but I do. I’ve been the bottleneck, I’ve put in two screws when I should have put in three. I’ve fallen in love with a process that was repellent to others. I picked the wrong course of action. I didn’t listen.

It’s not hard to help another person when you’ve trudged that road before. In fact, it’s the only kind of advice that works, because it’s based on experience.

Poka-yoke, in theory, seems painfully obvious. But “obvious” is often an under appreciated asset. Because continually looking for creative ways to minimize mistakes pushes people to rethink the process; it invites innovation.

And I’d rather google images about innovation over mistakes any day.

How I Use Alexa to Get More Done

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I got the Amazon Alexa for my birthday and things haven’t been the same since. It’s had a profound impact on my home life in ways I wouldn’t have expected. This little “gadget” is powerful beyond most people’s imaginations and I’m just scratching the surface, but here are some of the awesome ways I use Alexa every day.

The Basics

Anytime we run out of a food item, before I’ve put the empty container in the trash, I belt out “Alexa, add Milk to my shopping list.” She confirms cheerfully and it immediately updates the shopping list in the associated iPhone app.

While at the store, I can check items off and if my wife is at home and wants to add something before I checkout, she just tells Alexa. This means we never run out of anything and our shopping trips are very efficient. This is the ultimate expression of the external brain.

I love making soft boiled eggs and have found that 6 minutes and 10 seconds in boiling water makes the perfect egg. So, early in the morning, with my eyes barely open, I put the eggs in boiling water and say “Alexa, set a 6 minute 10 second timer.” Her alarm sound is really pleasing. While she’s counting down I’ll ask “Alexa, what’s the weather today?”

When we change a diaper on the baby and it’s getting to the bottom of the package, I can say “Alexa, order more diapers” to which she responds “The last diapers you ordered were X for $Y, would you like these?” I’m only too happy to say yes and continue on my way.

My kids love Alexa. Not only does it force them to speak clearly and in a loud voice, but they can ask really interesting questions. The other day Ben said “Alexa, what kind of reptiles live in China?” After she recited the 20th reptile, I softly said “Alexa, stop.”

The boys also like baking so not only can I say “Alexa, how many ounces are in a cup?” But she has a ton of integrations with other sites. So using the AllRecipes “skill” she can walk me step by step through a baking recipe.

And of course, who doesn’t love a good dance party? The boys will say “Alexa, play Yellow Submarine” and she’s all too happy to comply.

The Secret Sauce

The real magic with Alexa is in it’s integrations, the most dynamic of which is through IFTTT which allows Alexa to connect to hundreds of services. I can say “Alexa, it’s cold in here” and using the Nest thermostat she’ll turn the heat on.

I can say “Alexa, turn on the TV to PBS Kids” and the Harmon Universal Remote will do as I command. “Alexa, turn off the black lamp” you can guess what happens next, thanks to a Philips Smart Plug.

My favorite is Alexa’s built in To Do List. I’ve set it up so that I can have Alexa add something to my list and that will post a task for one of the virtual assistants at Priority VA to get to work on it.

You can even use specific phrases to trigger just about anything. “Alexa, I just had a glass of water” can make a notation in your fitness tracking app. “Alexa, text my wife to call me when she can” is a pretty useful command.

The Big Idea

Using your voice to issue these types of commands means the shortest distance between your brain and action in something or someone else. You can use your working memory for coming up with new ideas, fresh brainstorming, and plain old peace and mindfulness. It also means there’s never hesitation where you have to decide how you will retain, or even act upon the information you develop.

Whenever you are ready…here are 4 ways I can help you become more replaceable and grow your business:

1) Join our FREE Facebook Group — The Replaceable Founder

2) Get our FREE Replaceable Founder Mini-Course

3) Come to our next One-Day Intensive “Becoming Replaceable Workshop” in NYC

4) Want to work with us privately? Just answer a few questions and find out if you’re a good fit. Apply Now

How To Get Out Of That Meeting Once and For All

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Meetings are the bane of my existence.

It’s not that I’m not diametrically opposed to meetings.

Under the right circumstances and executed under the proper guidelines, meetings can be a great expenditure of time…

…The problem is, most meetings — I’m willing to say 95% them — are not held under the right circumstances nor are executed under the proper guidelines.

The average meeting is horrifically inefficient. It involves too many people, too many touch points, too many questions, and — most importantly — too much time.

No meeting, no matter the significance, should take longer than 30 minutes. I don’t care if it’s about your business, your mortgage, or your child’s education — the meeting itself should be less than a half an hour.

Meetings are not about discussing all the avenues available, they’re about coming together to make decisions. They’re about choosing which road to take, not highlighting all the roads on the map.

Invited parties should be properly briefed before the meeting begins (if you’re hearing about something for the first time in the meeting itself, somebody screwed up) in order to ensure only pertinent matters are discussed.

When everyone has done their homework, I find most meetings can actually be concluded in less than 15 minutes.

Now, there is ONE important exception to my aforementioned stance on meetings and that is in the case of a brainstorming session — which is, quite frankly, an entirely different animal all together. If you’re gathering to hash out new ideas, speculate on future plans, or activate the creative faculties of the collective mind, then go nuts, use as much time as you’d like. Take all day and all night — a good brainstorming session can go for hours and hours.

Just remember that most meetings are not scheduled to brainstorm, they’re scheduled to make decisions.

If you’ve been struggling to adhere to tight timelines as of late, here are my five suggestions to make sure your next meeting is short and sweet…

Try Going For A Walk

Take your meetings and make them mobile. When one of your employees or co-workers wants to chat (be it in-person or over the phone) go for a stroll. Have a predetermined route that takes no more than 30 minutes roundtrip and confine your conversation to the duration of the journey.

Use The Timer On Your Smartphone

Using the timer/alarm on your smartphone is a blunt, effective means of keeping conversations focused and on-point. Clearly state, before the start of the meeting, that when the clock strikes zero you’re gone. For even greaterimpact, employ something more rudimentary like a kitchen timer, or hourglass — the incessant tick-tick-tick of the timer or the passing sand within the hourglass will amplify the sense of urgency in the room and minimize the trivial chit-chat.

Only Meet With People On THEIR Time

Though not always the most practical solution, meeting with people on their time is an incredibly powerful way to keep things as short as possible. By offering to meet with people during their lunch, after 5PM, on the weekend, etc. (those traditional timeslots when no one wants to work), you’ll avoid skip the superfluous and deal strictly in brass tacks.

Keep The Invitations To An Absolute Minimum

Not everyone needs a say — it’s callous but true. In this overly sensitized world, the workplace has too often become an environment of “we need to get everyone’s opinion on this.” The truth is, no you don’t. Having too many cooks in the kitchen will be detrimental to the environment, efficiency, and effectiveness of your meeting. Keep the guest list as small as possible — two people is the dream.

Ask Yourself Why?

The easiest way to keep a meeting concise is to not have it in the first place. Most meetings aren’t actually needed, but ordered and held from a force of habit. Before sending out a batch of invitations or blocking-off chunks of calendar time, ask yourself why do I/we need this meeting? Try and find another way to reach the objective you seek without involving other people.

Are meetings totally dispensable? — no.

As much as I’d like to do away with them entirely, there is always going to be a time and a place…but that time and place is far less frequent than we generally suspect.

So before scheduling your next meeting, make sure it’s:

  1. Absolutely necessary
  2. Taking up no more than 30 minutes of your day

For some further reading, check out Cameron Herold’s great book “Meetings Suck”https://upscri.be/6892b4?as_embed=true

Whenever you are ready…here are 4 ways I can help you become more replaceable and grow your business:

1) Join our FREE Facebook Group — The Replaceable Founder

2) Get our FREE Replaceable Founder Mini-Course

3) Come to our next One-Day Intensive “Becoming Replaceable Workshop” in NYC

4) Want to work with us privately? Just answer a few questions and find out if you’re a good fit. Apply Now

How To Have Free Time and A Free Mind

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Originally Published on LessDoing.com January 28th, 2015

Not long ago, I was reading an article from Chris Guillebeau in which he draws a bold conclusion:

Productive people never have free-time.

That statement gave me pause and — after reflecting upon it in detail — I came to my own bold conclusion:

Chris is right.

My workdays are basically Mondays and Wednesdays. I work long and hard on those days — this past Wednesday featured 11 meetings back-to-back — which means there is approximately zero opportunity for anything remotely resembling free-time.

Yet in spite of the loaded schedule, I hardly (if ever) feel overwhelmed.

That’s because even though I may never have freedom of time, I maintain my freedom of mind using the principles of Less Doing.

At its core, Less Doing was developed to empower people to get back to doing the things they want to do. By optimizing, automating and outsourcing 95% of the everyday, Less Doing allows us to silence the cacophony created by life’s trivial details. Once successfully muted, we can invest all our mental effort into the 5% we do better than anyone else.

Right now, it’s 9 PM at night. My wife is out with friends but I’m here working. Am I laboring to churn out replies to emails or achieve inbox zero for the day? — No. I’m sitting here in a state of calm, expending energy on things of great personal interest because I’ve taken care to delegate 95% of the tasks “I need to do.”

And that’s really the secret; understanding how to separate “I” from “need to do.”

Just because a task needs to be completed, doesn’t mean it needs to be completed by you.

That is the art of Less Doing. It helps us optimize, automate and outsource so we can think freely about the abundant possibilities around us.

Free your mind.

Stop going through the motions and start accomplishing the things you were always meant to do.

Whenever you are ready…here are 4 ways I can help you become more replaceable and grow your business:

1) Join our FREE Facebook Group — The Replaceable Founder

2) Get our FREE Replaceable Founder Mini-Course

3) Come to our next One-Day Intensive “Becoming Replaceable Workshop” in NYC

4) Want to work with us privately? Just answer a few questions and find out if you’re a good fit. Apply Now

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